“My book is full of stories that will make the readers laugh, cry and ponder their own lives, as well as, their lives with a pet,”said Sara Krill, author of My Pal Lou: The Story of Me.
by Maren Schober
Those of us who are fortunate enough to have a pet at home, know the numerous benefits that come from this experience. These loving animals help us emotionally, psychologically and even physically, as author Sara Krill, Wauwatosa, WI, found out first hand. In her new book, My Pal Lou: The Story of Me, Sara shares her life with her dog, Lou.
“The truth is I went into the pet store to get a comb for my cat,” Sara explains, “but there I was, face pressed up against the glass, eye to eye with this soulful beagle. I named him right then and there, uttering ‘Hello Lou’, at the same time arguing that I was not going to bring home a dog. Part of me just wanted to get the cat comb and go home, but something changed for me at that moment and I never regretted since.”
Sara will never forget her homecoming from the hospital following surgery. “The day I came home from the hospital, Lou was so happy to see me that he knocked me over when he greeted me.” she says. “As physically painful as that was, my heart was singing that my friend missed me so much! Lou lay next to me in bed, his head up and alert, as if to say he was my guard and he was on the job. The little things he did kept me in good spirits.”
When Lou later developed cancer and required expensive chemotherapy to stay alive, it was Sara who returned the favor and stood by him. “Many pet owners would have simply put him so sleep, but I knew he wanted to live, so I spared no expense to heal him the way he would have healed me if our situations were reversed,” Sara acknowledges. “ It was worth it. When he did pass away, he knew he was loved and cared for as a member of my family.”
Sara learned a lot from Lou. “I learned that animals have an amazing way of filling vacancies within ourselves, even when we’re completely unaware of those places of emptiness. Most of all I learned that all animals are capable of giving and receiving love, and deserve respect.”
“My book is full of stories that will make the readers laugh, cry and ponder their own lives, as well as, their lives with a pet. I like to think my book can touch people by pulling them into my life with my dog. They get to know me and all my faults and trials as a single woman trying to live life the best way I can. It also allows the reader to emotionally and intellectually experience the significant role that Louie, a pet, played in my life.”
It took Betsy Otter Thompson forty years to respect her psychic talent.
by Roger Zotti
Betsy Otter Thompson said she wrote her latest book, Walking Through Illusion (O Books), because she was curious about Jesus and the people who surrounded him. At the same time, she says, “It was the honoring of my psychic gift – which revealed itself when I was five years old. Because of the traumatic circumstances around telling someone in my family I could communicate with spirit, I abandoned the gift until midlife.” It took forty years for Betsy “to respect my particular talent, but I finally did and the books followed.”
Betsy describes her book as “a series of interconnected stories about biblical people who either knew Jesus or knew of him and were influenced by him.” Its technique is Socratic – that is, a question is asked and an answer given. (Note: the questions are as important as the answers.) More, Walking… doesn’t attempt to agree or disagree with the Bible. It is, Betsy says, “an emotional accounting… It’s about people who lived long ago before Christianity began.” Its purpose isn’t to argue about “who is right and who is wrong about what happened then; [its] purpose is to encourage people to live what is right for them now. I believe that when we leave here, we don’t take our beliefs with us anyway – we take the love we found from having them.”
Throughout Betsy’s writing “the principle of action/reaction – or the pulling of energy back to itself – is ever present.” It’s also, she believes, “a force that runs the universe as well as our lives… since I improved my life from using it, I’m trying to help others become aware of the power behind it to improve their own lives.” Early on, she defines reaction/action as “a little like badminton. It isn’t the speed which you swat that wins the game. It is the finesse with which you deliver the shot.” Examples are provided throughout, as in her chapter about Judas: “If Judas betrayed others,” she writes, “he was betrayed by others.” Later, when she writes about Pilate, we learn that “Pilate condemned himself to whatever he condemned others to.”
Betsy’s biggest challenge writing Walking Through Illusion – which is available on Amazon.com and in bookstores – involved the publisher of her earlier book, The Mirror Theory. Initially, her Walking… manuscript was rejected. She edited it and sent it off again, but received no response. She kept editing and emailed it again: Still no reply! Then, she says: “…I heard about a service on the Internet that was helpful in terms of finding publishers and agents and decided to try it: www.publishersandagents.net.”
Later she discovered her previous publisher “was in financial trouble and had been bought out… and probably never even received my emails. Had I not been forced to seek another publisher, I wouldn’t have received the suggestions that made Walking… so much better.” What she learned from the experience “might be helpful to other writers.”
Inspirational and thought-provoking, Walking Through Illusion offers the reader a distinctive way of thinking about life and living it… Learn more by visiting www.betsythompson.com.
Jean-Yves Solinga’s vision, in Landscape of Envies, “is as original, diverse, and perceptive as it was in his previous works…”
by Roger Zotti
Jean-Yves Solinga, in his Preface, explains the title of his latest volume, Landscape of Envies (Little Red Tree), this way: “The title … and indeed the source of this book can better be explained by defining ‘envies’ [as] not only or solely things and people we want or would like to possess, but also things and people we would like to change to our liking: for our own altruistic or selfish needs …”
Landscape of Envies is divided into two parts. Part one deals with “overpopulation, wars and violence,” the Gales Ferry resident says, while “the second half is much more ethereal.” Consider, too, that Jean-Yves poetry is not traditional: “In terms of the number of lines, for instance, I don’t write sonnets. I don’t write in rhymes. Sometimes, though, there is an interior cadence. I’m interested in form, but not in the sense that I try to fashion my lines to fit a certain form. My poetry is a combination of poetry and prose.” And be aware he can be breathtakingly blunt as in “Of Stardust and Morality”: “Corrosive Chemicals in the land. / In our souls. In our veins.”
“Behind the Curtain,” one of my favorite poems, was clearly inspired by Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus. When Jean-Yves writes, “Under the gratuitous absurd warmth of a friendly beach,” we’re reminded of a crucial scene in Camus’ novel The Stranger. Meursault – the narrator and main character whose mother has recently died – is walking on the beach and encounters an Arab who “drew his knife and held it up to me in the sun.” Fearing an attack, he shoots the man. “I had shattered the harmony of the day,” Meursault says, “… of a beach where I’d been happy.” The word “absurd” captures Camus and Jean-Yves’ existential vision of life’s absurdity, where an individual (like Meursault) is, in part, found guilty of murder because he was supposedly insensitive on the day of his mother’s funeral.
Another favorite is “Little by Little.” Written after Jean-Yves saw At First Sight (1999), he writes, “Such was the devastation of the landscape/ That he caught himself renouncing for the first time … / Sight.” In seventeen words he captured the film’s essence, which is the story of a blind man (Val Kilmer) who has an operation that restores his sight – and that’s when his troubles begin. “There’s something wrong,” Kilmer’s character says. “This can’t be seeing.”
In his introduction Jean-Yves writes, “I had feared I would not be able to rekindle that feeling of the first time after my first collection of poetry. I almost felt envious for that person that I was, then … Could I do it again?” The answer is, yes, he has done it again. In “Landscape of Envies” his existentialist/humanist vision is as original, diverse, and discerning as it was in his previous works, Clair-Obscur of the Soul and In the Shade of a Flower.
Visit www.littleredtree.com for information about other Little Red Tree publications.
Barbara Tako’s Clutter Clearing Choices is about “how to live a fuller, more caring, and simpler life.”
by Roger Zotti
Remember Oscar Madison? Yes, Oscar Madison, the messy one of The Odd Couple! Well, Barbara Tako was once like him – but several years ago she underwent a turning point in her life.
Because her life was overrun with clutter, she said an emphatic goodbye to Oscar and “decided to become more like Felix Unger [Oscar’s roommate]. I learned my clutter clearing goal wasn’t about perfection but about freeing up energy [and time] to focus on the things in my life that matter most.” In fact, she rails against perfection because it “holds us back from attempts to get better organized, manage our time better… Decide it is more important to get started than to do it perfectly.”
To help other people “overwhelmed by clutter” the way she once was, Barbara shares her ideas in Clutter Clearing Choices (O Books). “We all have different personalities and preferences,” she says, “and we are all at different life stages. I offer a variety of suggestions rather than one ‘right’ way. I also think about different kinds of clutter depending on the season, and writing seasonally on this topic hadn’t been done before.” Packed with sensible information and common sense, her book is easy to read and insightful, valuable and humorous.
Here’s a sampling of Barbara’s many important clutter clearing tips: “Accomplish a lot of weeding out in small blocks of time – as little as 10 or 15 minutes… Spend less time worrying about clutter and just a little more time resolving it.” Also, remember to “Keep an ongoing donation box or shelf spot in your home to take discards to – as you discover them daily.” A common and serious clutter problem is what to do about sentimental items that accumulate. According to Barbara, “Keep the sentiment by taking a photo or writing in a journal, but donate, sell, or gift the actual ‘stuff.’ Display rather than store ‘sentimental stuff.’ If you keep something in a basement or attic, ‘it’ could get wrecked by temperature or humidity level changes…”
And what if it’s a collection? “Keep your favorite two or three samples, write down the history of the collection, and decide not to retain the entire collection.” She believes, however, that “there is no one right way to handle sentimental items. We all choose to keep some sentimental items – and that is fine.”
For Barbara clutter is “physical, mental, emotional and relational.” Now, while it “can be tangible like household goods, clothing, toys, and paperwork,” clutter “can also be feelings that pull us down and wear us out, including stress, guilt, anxiety.” To paraphrase one of her key points: Clutter is anything in your life that isn’t helpful to you – but once you take charge of clutter, you might just find yourself living a more caring, richer, and simpler life.
Remember, Clearing Cutter Choices is written by someone who has experienced the problems clutter can cause – and therefore there’s nothing pie-in-the-sky about it … If you have stories or ideas about clutter clearing, contact Barbara at simplify@clutterclearingchoices.com or visit her website: www.clutterclearingchoice.com.
Becky Walsh, author of Intuitive Lovers, says, “Avoiding pain is an avoidance of life itself. Everything works on polarity... In order to feel pleasure you must be able to feel pain.”
by Angela Olsen
There is sunshine in the horizon as I sit down to interview the author of perhaps one of the most groundbreaking books to come my way. The book is Intuitive Lovers by Becky Walsh and I liken it to the brilliant work by Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth.
Becky Walsh taught intuition at the College of Psychic Studies in London. She has a radio show on LBC 97.3FM, works as an intuitive therapist, and as a life coach helping people to develop their consciousness. She is candid, sharp, quite accessible, and, oh yes, hilarious!
To get the ball rolling, I must know what inspired this book? To this, Becky says there were three defining moments which brought about Intuitive Lovers. One being, she kept saying the same things to clients in session. So, she decided to put it all in a book, suggest the clients read it, and then refer to that body of knowledge in therapy.
She was shocked to be told by an acupuncturist partner that she was too much in her… well, you can use your imagination (or better yet, read the book!) Becky, while scoring points on being a technical lover, in reality was not making love, but was making actions. She attributes this to “finding difficulty in being a woman, struggling to be sensual.”
Another catalyst for Intuitive Lovers was an assessment of society. We are all born with intuition. Yet as we develop linguistic skills, we are able to communicate solely with words. In combination with techonology, this absolves us of the need for many of our innate intuitive abilities.
So then, what stands in our way to finding our perfect mate? One of the culprits is ego. Becky believes that we awaken every day in a perfect state, that there is nothing we need to do to define ourselves. “The ego is seeking enlightenment, but it is about seeking not finding,” says Becky. “It’s crazy in a way, but the ego will die if it finds enlightenment.”
She adds, “We believe that we need to get rid of the ego… The only way to get rid of it is to embrace it… Stop putting energy into our negative emotions… To be one with living, doing human things, I love that!”
Becky refers to something called the Pain Body, a force Tolle presents in A New Earth as well, and was the subject of Oprah Winfrey’s first-ever online course. People with an over-active Pain Body can unknowingly sabotage everything which is dear to them. If someone acts out often, they probably have an active Pain Body.
Often people will avoid relationships to avoid being hurt. “Avoiding pain is an avoidance of life itself. Everything works on polarity… In order to feel pleasure you must be able to feel pain. It’s like any other emotion. If you turn down hurt on a volume dial to 6, you also turn down love to a 6, as well… If you cut off pain, you also cut off love.”
There is a lengthy look into the world of “kink” in Intuitive Lovers, so much, in fact, that Becky was uninvited to a book signing at East-West Bookstore in Seattle! Quite frankly, the only part of the “kink” which is shocking is how it is presented to the reader without judgment.
Intuitive Lovers is revealing. While reading it, I had many “a-ha” moments, as it opens the mind to emotions and how to take responsibility for them alone and in a union. After all, thoughts become things and what we resist persists!
